Customer of the day and other adventures

I am Sunflower Market's customer of the day. Why? Because I'm awesome.

While I was at Sunflower today to pick up some things to make lasagna (which will be discussed later), the produce guy (who will from here on be mentioned as "Justin", as was signified on his nametag) jokingly said to me "How would you like to sample one of our fine peppers today?" as he motioned toward the serranos, jalepenos, and habaneros. Thinking he was serious, I said "Sure, why not?" He looked at me for a moment and said, "I was just kidding. How about a kiwi instead? That's probably more appetizing. Besides, these are probably too hot for you." WRONG words to say to me, the queen of the overly competetive. Feeling the desire to show this ignorant Utah boy just how much heat an Albuquerque girl can take, I said, "Actually, I think I might go for the pepper."
He stared at me, quite taken aback. "Are you serious?" he asked me. Hah!
He proceeded to hand me a serrano, which I took no hesitation in biting into. "Is it hot?" he asked timidly. "Not at all," I said. And truthfully, it wasn't. "Okay, how about a habanero?" He held it out to me. I took it and bit in. Not too hot. Then he said, "Did you get any seeds in there?" I hadn't. So I took another bite, making sure to get some seeds. At which point, my mouth turned into a raging inferno. I didn't mind though. It was a welcome change after all of the sissy food these Utahns call "spicy". My eyes teared a little bit, but that's to be expected. After all, this was a habanero!

Justin the produce guy was quite impressed. "What is your name, crazy pepper lady?" he asked. So I told him. Later, when I was at the register, he went up to the cashier and made sure she knew I was the customer of the day. Go me!

Switching gears. As a chef-in-the-making, I have the frequent experience of spending hours on a masterpiece that is demolished in about 30 seconds. Yesterday, I made a beautiful, perfectly round, mouthwateringly tender loaf of sourdough bread topped with deliciously sweet diced onions. It was not a small loaf of bread. It was about a foot in diameter. It was 3/4 of the way gone within 15 minutes. It took me four hours to make. Granted, a lot of that was "waiting for the dough to rise" time, but still! At least I know my hard work was thouroughly enjoyed.

Lasanga. An Italian classic, and a tired American standby. I am deeply saddened by the number of people who equate the concept of lasagna with Stouffer's. Why on Earth would anyone eat that? It's not the way lasagna was intended to be I tell you! Anyway, I digress. I wanted to make lasagna. But not the tire, bolognese and cheese lasagna. This was to be a special dish that would use simple, clean flavors and be ultimately much lighter than it's meat and cheese laden counterpart. My lasagna features layers of sun-dried tomato pesto, ricotta cheese, pancetta, tender pieces of asparagus, all topped off with a healthy layer of shredded whole milk mozerella. Molto bene!

Just Muffin Around....

If the only muffin top you've experienced recently is the one hanging over your jeans...well then that's just sad! I am a huge fan of muffins, the tops being the best part, especially if they're covered in toasted nuts....delicious!

Today I was in a bit of a baking mood (the question is, when am I not?), so I decided to make up a muffin recipe. Anybody who knows me at all, knows that I'm kind of a health freak. Recently, I've been on even more of a health kick than usual. So I wanted these muffins to be filling and healthy. That kind of thinking led me to come up with these.

The great thing about this particular recipe I've created is they're so simple. You can seriously add anything to them! Blueberries, cranberries, nuts, apples, cinnamon, you name it! For my purposes, I added a banana cut into teensy little chunks and some chopped almonds on top.

Oatmeal Muffins

• 1 c oats
• 1 c vanilla soymilk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c vegetable oil
• 1/4 c agave syrup
• 1 c flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Soak the oats in the soymilk for 20 minutes. Add the egg, oil, and agave, stirring to combine. Stir in dry ingredients and any add ins. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.

Produce WINS!

Let me just throw something out there: I love meat. Meat, meat, meat, meat, MEAT! Seriously, nothing quite hits the spot like a juicy t-bone grilled with garlic and drizzled with delicious thyme oil. OH man. The only problem with meat is, no matter how much you love it, no matter how much time you put into your relationship with it, it just won't love you back. It's just not so good for you.

In 7th grade, I attempted vegetarianism. I was going strong for two weeks, loving my soy chicken nuggets, my red beans and brown rice, and totally digging the salads...until my parents wanted steak for dinner. If you've ever seen Finding Nemo (and let's face it, who hasn't?) just picture me as the shark when Dory gets a bloody nose. All I could think about was that tender, grilled-to-perfection steak sitting so deliciously on a plate less than a foot away. To put it delicately, my new vegetarian lifestyle was over.

Anyway. Living in America, where beef is practically the national food, I find myself frequently falling into a "meat rut". When I think about what to make for dinner, it's always, "Okay. We had steak on Sunday, salmon on Monday, and chicken on Tuesday. We could have pork tonight. Or we could have fish again, but maybe that's too soon." Why does it rarely cross my mind to go all veggie? I'm proud to say, last night I broke the cycle.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, my roommates and I are rolling in produce. It's everywhere. We have so much fruit and veggies in our fridge that we decided to skip grocery shopping this week (which means we saved $40! YAY!). That also means that our fridge is now meatless, as I used the pork roast I had on Monday. So I put all of my brain power into coming up with this:

Let me introduce you to vegetable curry (which isn't technically a curry, seeing as there was no curry to be found in my apartment). Tender butternut squash, carrots, and a small bit of red chile (my roommates aren't so big on spicy food. Which saddens me greatly, but we won't go into that), simmered in unfiltered apple juice, and seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, salt, pepper, and deliciously sweet notes of vanilla. We put it over brown rice and had salad on the side... TO DIE FOR!

I have never had a vegetable be so delicious. I mean, I love veggies with all of my heart and jump at the chance to eat them grilled, steamed, broiled, raw, you name it. But this was unlike anything I had ever had before. I almost want to be a vegetarian again....almost.

It's not a hobby...it's more like an obsession

Probably the first thing people learn about me is that I love to cook. I take pride in that fact and I take immense pride in the food I make. I put all of my heart and soul into the food I prepare. When it turns out to be less than I imagined, I usually have a small temper tantrum and whatever I made ends up in the trash. I once threw away a 3 layer chocolate cake that I spent 4 hours making because the icing didn't set up on the cake the way I wanted it to. The cake tasted perfectly wonderful and anyone would have been glad to have it, but I couldn't give anything away that I considered less than amazing. Conversely, when something I've schemed up and executed turns out exactly as I planned, or sometimes better, the joy I feel is utterly inexplicable. I imagine it's akin to the feeling a parent gets when their child does something praiseworthy -- they just want to tell the world. And that is how I feel right now.

And so, I present my piece de resistance: Roasted pork loin crusted with spices, accented with a blackberry and rosemary reduction, supported by a mound of luciously creamy mashed red potatoes, and a green salad.

As my down the hall neighbor said, "Man, if I could eat with my eyes, I'd already be full." And that, I thought/replied, "Just wait until you taste it."

An apple a day....

I think concerning food, fall is one of my favorite seasons. The apples are ripe and practically raining out of the sky and all of the winter squash is finally ready for harvesting. It's chilly enough to break out the soup pot. Fall food is hearty and refreshing, the apples crisp, the squash sweet and tender, and all of the root vegetables crunchy and satisfying.

I'm thinking of all of this now because about 2 weeks ago, my friend Steven brought me a box of apples from his trees in Magna. I was terribly excited and promptly made a delicious apple cranberry crisp. Fast forward to now. Not only did Steven bring me another bag of apples, but we still had some left over! And to top that off, my roommates and I snagged the two extra bags of apples from our trip to Range Creek Canyon with the UVU Honors Program this weekend. We're drowning in a sea of apples! So today I made a pie with apples and deliciously sweet and tart pomegranate arils, apple turnovers, and homemade applesauce (no sugar added! Just apple puree, water, and cinnamon and allspice! Healthy AND delicious!).

And that's just the beginning of the fall deliciousness that has decided to grace my apartment.

My roommates grandparents have given us lovely acorn squashes, beets, and kohlrabi. My mother sent me back up here to school with a giant spaghetti squash and some delicious tomatoes.....basically we're produce millionaires. So thank you fall for providing us with this glorious bounty of healthful, wholesome and tasty food!!

My favorite little people.....plus one more!

As the youngest child in my family, I was blessed to become an auntie at the age of nine to an adorable baby girl named Kamree. A year later, my studly nephew Shayden came on to the scene. I loved them to pieces the first time I got to hold them. I was totally in love (and still am) with doing Ree's hair, helping her choose outfits, and applying small amounts of makeup whenever she asked if she could use some of mine. I loved visting them and and having Shayden wake me up in the morning asking me to eat cereal and watch cartoons with him. I loved talking to each of them on the phone and hearing them say "Love you bye!" every time we had to hang up. I didn't think life could get any better than that. Then, in 2006, life did get better than that! A beautiful baby Kiya arrived and again, I was totally enamored with being an auntie all over again. Of all of the kids, Kiya spit up on me more than anyone. But I still loved to hold her. I remember visiting them in Germany this last spring when Kiya got scared by a big bug. So I picked her up and she wouldn't let me put her down for 2 hours. I felt so priveleged that I was the one she wanted. :)

Shayden, Kiya, and Kamree on the first day of school 2009

But this time, I knew life could, and was going to get better. At that time, my sister-in-law, Becca, was 3 months pregnant with a little girl. That little angel, Bella, arrived a few days ago on September 21st, at 3:16 am. I haven't had the chance to hold her yet, and I won't until Christmas, when I visit them in New York. I can't wait to see all of the kids, my brother, and my sister-in-law. I've missed them every day since I saw them last. It breaks my heart every time I have to leave and Shayden looks at his feet and says "I'll miss you lots". These are my favorite little people in the entire world....and I can't wait to add little miss Bella to that list. I'm so glad the family is complete now....or we think it's complete at least.

Public Transportation

For someone who always had a parent or neighbor drop me off and retrieve me from school (until I could drive myself of course!), public transportation comes as quite a shock. My roommates and I decided it would be immensely more economical to take the bus to school and around Orem instead of driving our various vehicles. So, in the last few days, we have had many adventures and many laughs involving wrong buses, missed stops, seeing the same bus driver 3 times in one hour, and a mistaken trip to a secure area that was meant to be closed to the public. Woops. Oh, not to mention, we waited half an hour for a bus that doesn't exist. That one will make you feel reeeeeealllly smart. So much for being Honors students.....

On the Tram with the Fam.

Today our family had plans to ride the Tram here in Albuquerque and have a picnic at the top with Amber and Scott McEntire and their kids Kirra, Kade, and Keian. My love for all things culinary of course prompted me to volunteer my skills to prepare our picnic dinner. I spent a couple hours preparing a pasta salad, caprese, and a delicious entree consisting of pizza dough, mozzarella cheese, prosciutto, basil, and spinach, rolled up and cooked to crispy, golden perfection. Needless to say, our meal was rockin! The McEntires picked us up at 5:30 and we drove to the tram, boarded, and marveled at the lovely view. We were anxious to get to the top and have our picnic! I for one was beyond starving, and the aroma of warm pizza dough wafting from my bag did nothing to help the situation. Anyway, we got to the top and wandered around, attemtping to find a flat spot to put our blanket down. The whole time, Kade was bounding around in the tall grass, jumping off of rocks, and announcing with much fervor that he was going to "hunt bears and coyotes". What a fearless little guy he is! We finally found a spot that was flat enough for us to sit down and eat. About midway through our meal, I started to get pretty cold. It was quite breezy up on the mountain and a lot more chilly than I thought it would be. My shorts and tee shirt ensemble was doing nothing to remedy the situation. I wasn't the only one feeling the chill though. What all of us imagined would be a leisurely picnic dinner followed by much lighthearted frollicking through the mild summer evening air, turned into a half an hour race to finish dinner and get off the mountain before our fingers turned blue and fell off our bodies. We did manage to get some nice pictures before we left, however. And the trip to Coldstone for ice cream (compliments of my ever generous father) was certainly good compensation for our short lived attempt at a summer picnic. Fun stuff. :)The view from the top

Kirra and mom enjoying the view

The countdown begins...

8 days. 8 days is all I have left in the place that I have lived my entire life. I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it is the only place I have ever called home. In 8 days, I make the trip to Utah to start the rest of my life. I've always known the day would come when I would pack my things and leave the familiar things behind. But when I was five years old, nothing seemed further away than college. Even during high school, the wait for graduation seemed eternal. But now, graduation is in the months gone by, and I have little more than a week to get my life together and relocate. I'm excited. I'm so excited to move on to new things and find out who I am. I'm looking forward to the lack of expectations I'll have to fill. I only have to meet my own standards, and I get to decide what people will come to expect of me. I will finally get to find out if I am in fact the child my parents hope I will be. I'll be able to decide if I want to live by the rules they set for me, or work out something better on my own.
Preparing to move is something that is completely new to me. I have only ever moved one time, and it was 10 minutes away from my childhood house. I was only five at the time, so the boxing up of my limited possessions was not something I had any part in. I just had to get in the car with my parents and walk through the doors of a new home. Now, however, I have to box up all of my things. I have to go through my closet and get rid of things that I no longer need, things that a few years ago seemed of the utmost importance, things I thought I could never part with. I was surprised to discover how easy leaving so many of those things behind has become. I'll just say this. I am not a high school student anymore. Between graduation and now, my life has changed immensely. And I know it will change even more in the weeks and months to come. I've been waiting for this day for a long time, and now the final countdown begins.